Just Getting Started
Volume Two, Issue 1
Index
Week One is over and done with and I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, for me personally, it’s been a success. I’ve managed to get out of my house (and not just for work) to walk and look around my neighborhoods every day, despite the heat. On the other hand, I feel like I’ve got a long way to go to get my photo mojo back. Anyway, here are the week’s notes:
1 July 2022 - “Green” - I grew up in the American Southwest, where the dominant color scheme consists of brown, tan, and copper. The vast expanse of green that is Japan in the summertime still fascinates me even though I have now lived in Japan longer than I ever lived in the desert.
2 July 2022 - “Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” - Shady companies the world over are going to get away with skirting as many non-profitable rules as they can and Japanese companies are no exception. In this case, there are regulations that state that housing developers must create play spaces in the neighborhoods they create. So the companies build ones like in this photo - surrounding a power station, massively overgrown, and lacking decent play equipment. But they’ve met the letter of the law, so it stands.
3 July 2022 - “Curving Away” - There’s not a lot to say about this one except that the small road you can see is actually just a track for farm equipment to access the various rice fields. It is also my dog’s favorite place to poop1. I’m sure you’ll see it again before this series is done.
4 July 2022 - “Down the Tracks” - The best part of this photo is what you can’t see: I had a crappy day at work and really just wanted to collapse into Netflix and cocktails, but I made myself get up and saddle up the dog and go for a long walk around our greater neighborhood. The light hit the tracks just right from the small pedestrian bridge and I got this shot. You’ll see these tracks again, too, before this series finishes.
5 July 2022 - “Broken Shards” - Japan is legendarily clean and tidy. Which is why it’s so surprising to me that the exception seems to be people’s yards and gardens. For every beautifully landscaped garden of bonsai and well-tended flowers, there are a dozen barely kept lots with broken tools and discarded toys strewn throughout. I’m not judging. My house is definitely one of the latter.
6 July 2022 - “Our Power Doesn’t Run on Nothing” - On the one hand, I really wish Japan would bury more of its power lines. Every typhoon seems to knock more of them down making a massive hazard for everyone, and yet, they do make some interesting panels in the sky if you use them right…
7 July 2022 - “Ice Cube” - Today was a good day. Got outside in the mid-morning before the heat really set in; just blue and white skies over green fields all day. Here’s hoping all your days are equally good.
Of course we pick it up. We’re not savages.